In response to a steep incline in financial deficits in the Russellville School District’s Food Service Department, the school board voted Monday to study other options.

Superintendent Randall Williams said the board voted to file a letter of intent to the state department, expressing the district’s desire to look into other food management services.

The school district, which currently oversees its food department, supplemented from its operating funds into the food department $423,521.27 last year due to the department’s expenditures exceeding its revenues.

The department hasn’t seen a deficit less than $100,000 since 1999, when the deficit was at $2,593.31. Deficits haven’t fallen below $200,000 since 2003.

“Expenditures exceeded revenues by $423,000 last year,” Williams said. “That’s what the study is about and what we’re trying to determine is if a professional food management service could help us solve that problem.”

Williams said the professional companies the school may consider employing may have increased buying power, which would make them more efficient in the delivery of services.

“The schools that we’ve talked to — there’s two in Arkansas, one in Hot Springs Lakeside and Bentonville — were both operating way in the red and were able to turn it around and get into the black,” he said. “And the only thing they did was hire professional management services, so that of course makes it of interest to us since we’re in the same situation.”

Williams said the other Arkansas schools that employ outside food services employ Aramark and Chartwells.

Williams commended the employees of the district’s food department and said the study and the board’s consideration to employ new services is in no correlation with the food staff.

“We’ve got great people,” he said. “They can’t work any harder.”

If the board votes to employ a professional food management service, Williams said the district will construct a request for proposal (RFP) that would ensure the staff remained employed.

“The district will construct an RFP that would delineate all the requirements we would have of the professional food management services, and the first requirement we would have would be that they would hire all of our staff,” he said. “All of our staff would keep their jobs under any scenario if we did this.”

Williams added the RFP would also require the employees maintain their current level of pay, and the study would look into what benefit changes their would be, if any.

The nutritional value of the food would stay the same per federal guidelines, Williams said, but the quality may improve.

“The schools that I’ve talked to were very enthusiastic about the quality of food they have now, both in selection and taste,” he said.

If the board makes the decision to hire an outside service, Williams said the RFP will also include a requirement maintaining current food prices for students, with the exception of increases the school already regulates.

Once the RFP is submitted, companies will bid to provide the services and the board will then make a decision, Williams said.